Before I get started, I have to spend a minute discussing the World Series of Poker. I’ve come to the conclusion that almost anything is watch-able on the DVR. But I’m not sure the WSOP fits in this category. Sunday ESPN2 aired this event starting at 3:30pm, and not a single player was eliminated for over two and a half hours. Worse yet, I think there were two compelling hands in that first session. There’s a reason they edit this down and show the highlights. Guys raising and folding just does not make for entertaining theater, even when you can fast-forward through the whole thing.

Well, thankfully we can finally say good-bye to evenings where the only competitive event on TV is poker. College basketball is back. And with college basketball, it is quantity over quality. Not every game will be good, but there is always a game on TV.

- I pick it up at 6:43 ET. Why does my TV screen say 17:14 until kick-off? Um, shouldn’t that be tip-off?

- I love Big East arenas. Steve Lavin is doing wonders to rebuild the St. John’s program. But at 7pm on a Monday Night in November, there is no one in the center court seats. Speaking of Lavin, he is not on the sidelines because of a medical issue. I really hate that we need to get into the details of these things. Isn’t anything private? Later in the show we get to see a graphic with the “Steve Lavin Illness Timeline”. Great.

- William and Mary starts with a match-up zone and just dares St. John’s to score from the perimeter. They can’t. The Red Storm start the game 3-15 from the field. This is brutal to watch, but this is really what November college basketball is about. Teams from smaller conferences go into big arenas and play zone and dare the big schools to beat them from deep. The teams that have quality shooters breeze by this test and win big. The teams that don’t have quality shooters end up playing brutal game after brutal game.

- We have our first “Why are they leaving him wide open?” moment of the year as Quinn McDowell of William and Mary is on fire from deep. And we have our first awful blown dunk of the year as St. John’s Moe Harkless loses the ball on the way up.

- You are going to hear about God’s Gift Achiuwa's siblings in every game this season. No announcer can resist this factoid. There’s Peace, Grace, Precious, and a couple more. I won’t give you the full list since we still have the full season ahead of us.

- The center court seats appear to have broken the 50% full mark for the start of the second half.

- I hate that we have to predict everything and know everything ahead of time with sports. Sometimes I just like discovering who the good players are organically. And that’s exactly what we get with St. John’s tonight. Sure, some of these players have recruiting numbers attached to their names. And others are junior college transfers. But until they suit up, we don’t really know how they will play. Who wants to be this team’s star?

- Nurideen Lindsey appears to have answered the bell in game one. I have my doubts that he can be St. John’s best player over the course of the season, but in this game he was the sparkplug. Lindsey was relentless in taking the ball to the basket, and with his great hands defensively he sparks a 22-5 run for the Red Storm. St. John’s trailed big at half-time, but by the 8 minute mark, this game is a blow-out for the home team.

- You know what I loved about tonight’s game? It wasn’t the transition baskets or the open threes - it was all the mistakes. It was all those times when St. John’s took dumb chances that led to wide open shots for William and Mary. It was all those times when the William and Mary post players were wide open in the lane, and the William and Mary guards refused to throw the entry pass. We even saw a 10 second back-court violation tonight. They may not have worked out all the kinks yet, but that's why college basketball does not start with its best games.  Everyone needs a few warm-ups to work out the bugs.

- And I have some good news.  They've fixed the pregame graphic. It says 27:31 unitl the tip-off of game two.